Ford may not be the greatest comparison as many early models were just variants/improvements on one another. None-the-less I compiled some data I found detailing the early cars sales figures (up to, and including Model T). I don't know how accurate it is so take it with a grain of salt:

Knowing that Ford's Model S (3750 sales total) gave rise to Ford's Model T (10,667 first-year sales) makes me wonder if Musk and the rest of the Tesla team chose the name "Model S" signifying that BlueStar will be the vehicle that triggers widespread EV sales.

This year Tesla Motors produced more cars then Lotus Cars... So Tesla is bigger the Lotus. Quite ironic

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Great data point right there. Ironic indeed (when you think of Tesla Roadster, for sure), but, pulling ahead of Lotus is definitely a real strong statement that shows Tesla moving further away from niche brand to mainstream acceptance...

There is an old thread about this from the early days of Roadster production. The Roadster exceeded many EV makes, and the Model S will exceed all of the EVs produced by all automakers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Nissan may have beat Tesla to this number however.

Nissan currently has the record for number of all-electric cars sold in a calendar year, beating all the 19th / early 20th century companies. Tesla will probably not beat Nissan's record in 2013, but it will come close. (And for total cars sold, Nissan has a year's head start, basically.)

However, Tesla will probably beat the record for number of all-electric cars sold in a calendar year *in the US* in 2013.